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Yesterday I posted a timelapse video where the main feature was the GPS points on the topo map. When we drove back from Potholes a few weeks ago, I focused more on the images. I taped a USB webcam to the rear view mirror and had it connected to the laptop which was running an app to capture an image every two seconds. That worked great except that there was a problem with the inverter and the laptop battery died before we even made it back over the pass.

I took the images that we were able to snag, combined them with the GPS data and created another timelapse video. It’s all done with a custom C# program so if you geeks out there have any questions, let me know. Basically it’s a WinForms app with a web browser that loads the Bing maps and then I use Win32API calls to capture an image of the app. I have another app that combines all the image files into a WMV file.

The next thing I want to try is using the little HD video camera to record the images/video and see how that works. I have a suction cup camera mount that should make it easier to mount in the car and using the video camera means that I won’t need to have the laptop running. I plan to give it another try when we drive out to the coast in a couple weeks.

The video is embedded below, but again, it works best when you view in full screen HD quality. The GPS wasn’t able to get a lock on the signal for a while so it starts out with just images and then the location data kicks in. I wasn’t intentionally trying to keep our camping spot a secret since you could just watch the images and figure out where we were.

I’ve been playing around with a lot of time lapse ideas lately. I took some pictures for part of the return trip from Potholes which you’ll see soon, but on the hike up to Muir, I distracted myself by thinking how I could combine all the various data I had collected into one display.

In the backpack, the GPS was taking a recording every few seconds. I was also snapping photos every once in a while. To combine the two, I wrote an app to plot out our current location on top of a topo map and show a photo that was taken at that time (if one exists.) With the GPS data, I was also able to show our rate of ascent, the current elevation, the current time, and the latitude and longitude.

I combined that all into one application, wrote each update out to a new image file and then combined the image files into a movie file. It’s embedded below or you can find it on YouTube. It’s best when viewed in HD in full screen mode.

I’ll tell you up front that this is probably going to be a long post, but I want to record every minute of this trip. When I moved to Seattle, I thought, “I should climb Rainier.” I still remember the first day that the clouds parted and I saw Rainier on the horizon. I quickly realized that this thing is enormous. Ever since then, Mt. Rainier has filled my sunny days with taunting.

Camp Muir is located at just over 10,000 feet on the south side of Mt. Rainier. The parking lot at Paradise is 6,000 feet and the summit is 14,400 feet. Muir is halfway up and is on the path for most of the major routes to the summit. Most people who are headed for the summit will get up to Camp Muir on Day 1 around noon and will try to fall asleep as early in the evening as possible. They’ll get up very very early on Day 2, leave some gear at Camp Muir, reach the summit, come back to Muir for their gear and descend all the way to Paradise. Mike and I set out to ski down from Camp Muir back in June of 2008 but got turned around by a blizzard and my poor conditioning.

I’m still interested in getting to the summit, but before I invest the time and money in that trip, I wanted to do a day hike to Muir and back to see what it felt like. But every year, the summer would disappear without a trip to Muir. This year, I put a date on the calendar, found a group to hike with, and started some training.

We had planned to go last Thursday, but as the day approached, it became clear that the weather would be much better on Wednesday. It turns out that Wednesday was absolutely perfect. Visibility was so good that we could easily see Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens and even Mt. Hood which is 100 miles away! It was about 50 degrees with 20mph at the top which was perfect for a strenuous hike. On Thursday the temps were right around the freezing mark with rain and 40mph winds. We chose well.

AndyD and AndyM made the trip with me. Tim had planned to come along but had to bow out due to work. I met the two Andy’s in Renton at 6am and we headed for Paradise. We hit the trail at 9am. The first 2.3 miles up the Skyline Trail to Pebble Creek went very quickly. The views were extraordinary and the path is very well travelled. After crossing Pebble Creek, we were on the Muir snowfield and our ascent slowed dramatically. Trekking poles are a must. I can’t imagine doing it without them.

The snowfield does have some bits that are steeper, but it’s generally a relentless 2.2 mile slog up 2700 vertical feet of snow. The total vertical and length aren’t that terrible, but doing it at altitude is a whole different ballgame. By the time we got to about 9000 feet I was really feeling the effects. My muscles weren’t getting tired but my feet wouldn’t always go where I told them to go and I felt short of breath. At 10,000 feet you have 30% less oxygen than you do at sea level! Two hiking tricks really helped me out. The first is pressure breathing where you purse your lips together and forcefully expel all the CO2 from your lungs. The second was the rest step where you take one step forward, lock out that knee and rest on your skeleton. Then repeat with the other foot. Finding a good pace with this method was what kept me going. The Andy’s were quite a bit faster than me. I don’t know how much faster they would have made it to the top if they hadn’t waited for me (although they said it wouldn’t have been much difference.)

We reached Camp Muir in four hours and ten minutes which is a good/average time for summit groups. The difference is that I had a 25 pound pack and not a 40-50 pound pack like the summit groups. We kept pace with most of the other people that left around the same time as us and even left a few in our dust.

We spent about 45 minutes at the top enjoying the view, relaxing, putting on various bits of dry clothing, and eating. Then it was time for the descent. We had all brought trash bags along so we punched our legs through the bags and made hilarious looking shorts out of them. There are long glissade chutes down the slopes and we made good use of them. The first person would be sort of slow because they were re-breaking trail. The second was a bit faster and the third person would fly almost uncontrollably down the hill. It was a fun reward for such a tough hike. Once we got off the snowfield we hoofed it down to Paradise very quickly.

The sights and sounds were incredible: huge waterfalls poured over cliffs, the stark contrast of the wildflowers below to the snow and rock above, marmots running through the fields, chatting with climbers who had summitted that morning, and the thunderous sound of rock falls higher up the mountain (one of which we spotted.) Any one of those things would have been enough for a normal hike, but they all combined to give me an experience I’ll never forget.

One of my biggest concerns before the trip was what to take. I got the REI Flash 50 backpack for this trip, but what should I put in it? I ended up with two Camelbak bladders. The 3L one contained water and the 2L one was filled with the powdered Gatorade mix. I wore shorts and a dry hiking shirt. In the bag I carried an extra shirt, fleece, pants, gaiters, Under Armor shirt and pants, emergency first aid kit, emergency blanket, flint, a knife, two pairs of extra socks, sunscreen, a camera, jelly beans, 3 Power Bars, an apple, carrots, Tyla’s homemade trail mix and two sandwiches. If I had it to do over again, I would have brought less food. The jelly beans were really helpful. I kept them in my pocket and munched them regularly on the way up. I also went through all my liquid, taking the last sip as we got to the car. If/when I do this again, I want to look into waterproof boots (or at least I’ll carry a second set of shoes) and a bandana for some extra sun protection. Also, there are “bathrooms” at Muir but no toilet paper. Bring a bit along or bring a roll and leave it there. If you have to poo along the trail you are required by law to bag it and take it with you. In the cold weather and altitude, it would take hundreds of years to decompose.

I’d also say that you cannot leave too early in the day. Get up as early as you can and get on the trail early. We left at 9am but by the time we were coming down, it was getting really slushy and wet. It would have been even harder to climb up in those conditions.

Two things surprised me on the trip. First, there were bees on the whole way up the snow! They never really caused any problems but there was a constant buzzing as they followed us the whole way up. The second was how much of this hike was mental. On other tough hikes, I’d go until I couldn’t physically take another step. On this trip, I really had to focus on not letting the lack of oxygen get to me, not thinking about how far I had left to go, and on finding a good pace that I could sustain.

I owe a huge thanks to Andy and Andy for making this trip a reality! This has been on my list for a very long time (I mentioned it in the 2007 year in review) and it’s a major accomplishment for me!

You can view all the photos in the photo gallery.

On one of the hottest weekends of the year, we headed to eastern Washington (where it’s even hotter) to camp in the Potholes area. There is a state park nearby but we weren’t inside the park. We were actually inside the larger Columbia National Wildlife Refuge. The potholes area is a large number of smallish lakes that were partially natural but mostly man made. When a dam was put in place nearby, it raised the water table enough to create these small lakes. Because of the rock formations, most of the lakes feature sheer vertical rock faces down into the water which happen to make for great cliff jumping.

There weren’t any official campsites where we ended up but we found a good spot and set up our tents along one of the lakes. Even aside from the lack of running water, it was a lot different than our normal camping. There was no natural shade and we were essentially camping in a desert. And oh yeah, it was also a free range cow pasture so there were cow patties everywhere and coyotes howling at night.

Tim, Chelsea, Brittney and Devon got there on Thursday night but Tyla and I arrived on Friday night. On Saturday we did some cliff jumping, the highest cliff was measured at 21 feet, and spent most of the hot afternoon (upper 90s) lounging in the lake. Tyla and I picked up a dual innertube with a built in cooler in the middle. Unbeknownst to us, Tim and Chelsea had the exact same one!

It was a great trip and a fun new experience. The dogs had a blast running free and playing in the lake. Thanks for sharing your secret spot with us!

Photos are available in the photo gallery and a few of my favorites are right here in the post.

It’s fall and that means it’s time for TV shows to start up again. Here are some of my favorites. You can find even more in this list.

9/12 - Sunday Night Football
9/16 – It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
9/20 – How I Met Your Mother
9/20 – Rules of Engagement
9/20 – Two and a Half Men
9/22 – The Middle
9/22 – Modern Family
9/23 - Community
9/23 – Big Bang Theory
9/23 – 30 Rock
9/23 – The Office
9/26 – The Simpsons

Four and a half years ago, I wrote a blog post about a great bookmarking website called del.icio.us. Websites and tools come and go, but this one has stood the test of time for me. I still use the site very heavily.

What is it? del.icio.us (or now it’s also delicious.com) stores your bookmarks for you. When you save a bookmark you add tag words to the bookmark to help you remember it. Maybe you found a great condo in Hawaii to stay at some time. You might tag it with hawaii, condo, vacation, and lodging. You can come back later and easily search for a tag or two to help you filter down your list and find those related bookmarks again. You’ll always have your bookmarks handy from any computer.

Aside from not having your bookmarks on the right computer, one of the biggest problems is that many of the bookmarks you save never get used again and they clog up your list. With delicious, that isn’t a problem because you do a quick search for the tag that you’re interested in and it filters your list way down. I have over 1400 bookmarks right now and I can quickly find the one I want in just a few seconds. There are browser plugins so that you can save the current page with the click of a button.

The site is built around social networking, but I don’t use that feature at all. In theory, you can search around and find what other people have been bookmarking. The only social aspect I use is that whenever I see something that would be good for a gift list for me, I tag it with “gift.” That means that whenever a birthday or Christmas come around, I have an easy answer to “what do you want for ____?” I just tell them to go to delicious.com/bwmartens/gift. Problem solved.

If you’re curious and want to know more, head over to the Getting Started page on delicious.com or feel free to peruse my bookmarks at delicious.com/bwmartens.

About six months ago, I wrote about how you can tether your Windows Mobile phone to your laptop so you can have internet wherever you have a cell phone signal. It was handy, but it required you to have a USB cable hanging around and quite a few button clicks to get it all going.

Enter WMWifiRouter. You’ll find it in Windows Mobile Marketplace or at their website. You can get a free trial to make sure it works with your setup and the full program is $22. Once you try it, I think you’ll be convinced that is an absolute steal. The program has a number of modes but the one you’ll probably use the most is turning your phone into a wifi hotspot. Click ONE BUTTON and soon you’ll have a wireless network that you can connect to from your laptop and surf the web through your cell phone’s data connection.

Now all those wireless devices can have internet access anywhere. Laptops are obvious but what about your Zune or iPod? What about your wifi Kindle? They all should work just fine. Imagine driving down the road on your road trip and all of your passengers can be browsing the web on their laptops.

Note that if you have Android I think this is a built in feature on many phones. If you have an iPhone you’re out of luck. Also note that this may violate your contract. Also, beware of the 5GB/month data limit your cell phone company probably imposes on your “unlimited data” plan. This app has a very nice set of statistics to show you how much data you’ve used.

Here are some bandwidth speed test results from when it’s all set up: